Posted on 07/10/2006 1:36:15 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - An FBI raid on a Louisiana congressman's Capitol Hill office was legal, a federal judge ruled Monday.
Chief U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan said members of Congress are not above the law. He rejected requests from lawmakers and Democratic Rep. William Jefferson (news, bio, voting record) to return material seized by the FBI in a May 20-21 search of Jefferson's office.
In a 28-page opinion, Hogan dismissed arguments that the first-ever raid on a congressman's office violated the Constitution's protections against intimidation of elected officials.
"Congress' capacity to function effectively is not threatened by permitting congressional offices to be searched pursuant to validly issued search warrants," said Hogan, who had approved the FBI's request to conduct the overnight search of Jefferson's office.
Jefferson had sought the return of several computer hard drives, floppy disks and two boxes of paper documents that FBI agents seized during an 18-hour search of his Rayburn Building office.
At issue was a constitutional provision known as the speech and debate clause, which protects elected officials from being questioned by the president, a prosecutor or a plaintiff in a lawsuit about their legislative work.
"No one argues that the warrant executed upon Congressman Jefferson's office was not properly administered," Hogan wrote. "Therefore, there was no impermissible intrusion on the Legislature. The fact that some privileged material was incidentally captured by the search does not constitute an unlawful intrusion."
The raid on Jefferson's office angered members of Congress, some of whom threatened to retaliate by tinkering with the FBI and Justice Department budgets.
President Bush stepped in and ordered the solicitor general to take custody of the seized materials so Congress and the Justice Department could work out procedures to deal with similar situations in the future.
The president's 45-day "cooling off period" ended Sunday with no compromise worked out but with assurances from the Justice Department that it would not seek to regain custody of the materials until Hogan ruled on Jefferson's request.
This is GREAT news!
That would require character and thoughtfulness, and not knee jerk bashing.
It'll never happen.
Reasons stated above.
Oh heck, the entire office complex of every member of congress.....
the buggers need to spend time in jail...
... ALL OF THEM!
Since the feds have now seen the evidence, when he is over-ruled the only recourse may be to let Jefferson off scot free.
It's possible he's senile:
"Amicus contends that even a review of the documents by the Court to determine privilege is unconstitutional. See Amicus Brief 29."
No, they didn't.:
"... Member to be present at the search and to be permitted to remove Speech or Debate pricileged materials prior to the search (subject , of course, to later judicial review as now occurs in the sdubpoena context)."
Notice that while they use the "intimidation" clause as a shield for illegal activities, the first thing they come back with is ... budgetary intimidation.
Good question! LOL.
Chief Judge Hogan is an excellent judge. I had the honor of providing expert testimony before judge Hogan. He is sharp as a tack, and treated witnesses with respect.
This will coincide very neatly with the start of all the Dimcratz election campaigns; it was so convenient of the Dims to seek the 45 day delay. If they hadn't gotten the 45 day delay, this might have all blown over by now, instead it will play out while they're trying to make their msgs resonate with the public. God bless them.
"Chief U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan said members of Congress are not above the law."
finally some common sense from the bench!
Hooray Chief U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan!
ORIGINAL INTENT BUMP~!
Wow. Somebody had better inform the Congress about this development.
the only "chilling effect" and "cooling off period" should pertain to the $90k in cash in the Democrat crook's frig.
The OJ syndrome.
You couldn't make this stuff up.
Good for Judge Hogan, at least there's one judge who gets it.
NEWS FLASH:::: Judge Hogan has announced his plans to retire (resign) from his position.
Judge Hogan has decided to resign from the bench early today due to making a good common sense decision. Democrats applaud this move by Hogan saying, "We just can't have judges doing the right thing. Hogan was instructed by California's Barbara Boxer to reject allowing the FBI raid on William Jefferson, Democrat, Louisiana."
Boxer was quoted "he should have just listened to us. We gave him the best advice we could lie, I mean think of."
There is bitter truth in this.
Nothing makes the world more chaotic, irrational, insane, than the authority of Liberals.
U.S. Representative William Jefferson (D-LA) is seen in this June 1, 2006 file photo. A federal judge on Monday upheld the FBI's unprecedented search of the office of Jefferson, a Louisiana Democrat who is the target of a bribery investigation. (Lee Celano/Reuters)
A Reagan appointee.
:-)
To: National Desk
Contact: Brendan Daly or Jennifer Crider, 202-226-7616, both of the Office of House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi
WASHINGTON, July 10 /U.S. Newswire/ -- House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi released the following statement today on Judge Thomas F. Hogan's ruling upholding his approval of the search warrant of Representative William Jefferson (news, bio, voting record)'s congressional office:
"No one is above the law and no Members of the House can use a congressional office to conceal evidence of criminal wrongdoing or to shield them from prosecution.
"This particular search could have been conducted in a manner that fully protected the ability of the prosecutors to obtain the evidence needed to do their job while preserving constitutional principles.
"The House will continue discussions with the Department of Justice to develop procedures so that any future searches of Members' offices will protect the ability of the FBI to do its job and maintain the constitutional balance between the Legislative and Executive branches of government."
http://www.usnewswire.com/
The constitution always said so, but congresscritters hold judges in higher regard.
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